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'IHE DECLINE AND FALL'

chap, wars, through which an Asiatic despot is obligedto cut his way to the throne of his fathers. Yeteven in the East, the sphere of contention isusually limited to the princes of the reigninghouse; and as soon as themore fortunate compe-titor has removed his brethren, by the sword andthe bow-string, he no longer entertains any jea-lousy of his meaner subjects. But the Romanempire, after the authority of the senate had sunkinto contempt, was a vast scene of confusion.The royal, and even noble, families of the pro-vinces, had long since been led in triumph beforethe car of the haughty republicans. The ancientfamilies of Rome had successively fallen beneaththe tyranny of the Caesars; and whilst thoseprinces were shackled by the forms of a com-mon wealth, and disappointed by the repeatedfailure of their posterity , 1 it was impossible thatany idea of hereditary succession should havetaken root in the minds of their subjects. Theright to the throne, which none could claim frombirth, every one assumed from merit. Thedaring hopes of ambition were set loose fromthe salutary restraints of law and prejudice,and the meanest of mankind might, withoutfolly, entertain a hope of being raised, by va-lour and fortune, to a rank in the army, inwhich a single crime would enable him to wrestthe sceptre of the world from his feeble and un-

n There had been no example of three successive generations on thethrone; only three instances of sons who succeeded their fathers. Themarriages of the Caesars (notwithstanding the permission, and the fre-quent practice of divorces) were generally unfruitful.